The Late Roman Government.

ment , no Liberal could have lived in Rome . When suspected they generally had warning by their own spie 3 . "Worse than this—worse than anything we can conceive—was the system of debauchery kept

up by the priesthood . It was a proverb among the Eomans that ' if one would go to a house of ill-fame he must go by day , at night the priests had all the places / and another , that ' all married women wore secL-ieed V > y the priests / The amours

and profligacy of Antonelli were as well known as those of the late Emperor of France , and no one who has lived in Rome long can be unaware that the immorality of that city ( except among the obstinate Liberals who rejected all

prerogatives of the Church , as such ) was greater than any city in Europe , except Yienna and Naples , and worse in its type than that of the latter city .

" The Roman government of my time was the embodiment of the spirit of the Papacy of the middle ages . It had its rod over its subjects , as it always had done . If the world made progress outside its walls , it was strong enough to repress

mercilessly all evidence of it within . Conservatism of granitic rigidity was its role . In the course of my residence I . made an attempt to introduce American ice in place of the dirty snow of the Albeni Hills , and formed a company which offered

ice from American lakes delivered J . forJ the same price as that then paid for the snow at the pits where it was packed . The offer was urged strongly in the interests of the hospitals and public health , but was refused , as the government

held the monopolist to the condition of maintaining the people of certain villages in the ' vested interest- of ' gathering the snow '

" The only pins to be had in Rome were the old fashioned wire-headed . An American lady feeling the privation , proposed to import a quantity of English solid-headed pins , but was not permitted , because the trade in pins was a monopoly , and

the contracts were those of a former generation . " Pius IX , is I believe , an honest and conscientious man , of pure and exemplary life since , his devotion to the Church ; but the large majority of his subordinates were bigots , without honesty or

¦ sincerit y , or worse . The whole power of the civil government ( if a regime of priests can be so called ) was spent in the maintenance of the privileges and interests of the ecclesiastical system ; the people were indeed the sheep , and regarded

The Late Roman Government.

much as the quadrupeds are by their shepherds . Nothing but French bayonets kept it iu existence and the world may well be rejoiced at the end of an anomaly in modern civilization . If the Pope will dwell in a loyal city , I can recommend New

York to him ; for it appears to take as kindly to ecclesiastical control of the Roman type as Rome does reluctantly ; and if he wants courtiers he may , it is safe to suppose , count on the politicians , who dare not speak a word of sympathy and

congratulation fur the Itomano on tlicir escape from slavery , for fear of offending the hierarchy . " I remember a word which Kossuth said to me when he was in America—it seems to me prophetic and every day more ominous ; ' Mr .

Stillman , if you do not get rid of these politicians , vour country will be ruined in less than fifty years . ' This recurred to me on seeing that in the call for

a meeting of sympathy with the Italians not one professed politician ' s name occurs ( unless those of W . 0 . Bryant and G . W . Curtis are counted as such ) . " Not being a politician , and having no occasion

for the suffrages of those whose love of freedomis purely egotistic , or whose sympathy with it is an election mask , I am not ashamed , like the friend of a dark cause , to give you my name , only wishing for tho aake of Italy that it were heavier

and better known , and remain , in the strongest sympathy with your devotion to human freedom everywhere , in New York as well as in Rome or in Dublin . "

Masonic Jottings, No. 66.

MASONIC JOTTINGS , No . 66 .

BY A PAST PROVINCIAL GRAND MASTER . A PASSAGE IN OUR CHARGES . Brother , —The passage is well known to all . Masons . It is as follows : — " Let a man's Religion oe mode of worship , be what it may , he is not

excluded from the Order provided he believe in the Glorious Architect of Heaven and Earth . " The passage made no part of our Charges until the year 1738 . THE HENRY VI . EXAMINATION .

"This document appeared in the year 1753 in the ' Gentleman's Magazine , ' and is said to have been first printed at Frankfort-on-the-Maine in 1748 , but of this printed publication as yet no copy has been found any where . " — FINDEL .